Weather Eye

On the way home the sky looked both beautiful and ominous. Over the fields the clouds were piled high in all directions, dragging skirts of rain and lightning, looking bruised and petulant. I stood out by the fence and watched until the rain came in spatters. What I saw was imposing enough I felt compelled to take pictures, but had no idea what was coming. Only a few days into summer, and already the thunderstorms have arrived. Big ones.

A short time later we got pounded, and the storm dumped between 5 and 9 inches of rain in the course of a few hours (it overwhelmed the local gauges), with hail and wind and constant lightning. In town, some businesses were flooded and people had to be evacuated.

The power went out almost immediately, and for us that means no juice to run the sump pump. With that much rain, and no pump to keep up with it, water quickly backs up through the drains in the floor, and the basement begins to fill with water. We ran around in the dark in the rain, setting up a siphon with garden hoses running down to the bottom of the yard, and that kept it from getting worse fast, but by the time it was over, and the lights came on after midnight, there was water ankle deep in places. Almost the whole floor was a reflecting pool, soaking carpets, boxes, wood, and anything not up on legs. The dogs splashed around in, amused, stopping to lap up a little now and then.

The damage could have been worse. In the morning we found a big walnut tree was down, though it missed everything but a bench and another prized tree, and we lost another shade umbrella. Mostly it’s just a pain to deal with. The weekend was spent cleaning up, drying things out and stabilizing the downed tree.

It was Sunday night before work could return to the boats. Apparently they can’t wait to get in the water, and – as though they are already calling to the sea – water is seeking them out, so there may be risks in further delay. Got most of the sanding done, working late into the night and into Monday morning.